Should there be audit for Social Media

In addition to constant listening and alerting to their market, brands should conduct an initial, then annual social media audit to be successful in their endeavors.Just as brands conduct audits of inventory, employees, and budgets on an often annual basis, they should also survey the landscape to find out what customers,

influencers, partners and employees are participating on the social web. Audits are key for identifying priorities, benchmarking previous efforts, and planning for future efforts; the same applies for social media. I’ve been reviewing social media strategy documents from a variety of large brands, and I’ve noticed the following three common traits:

Understanding the Type of Social Media Audit.

1- Initial Kickoff Audit.

Brands should audit their social sphere as part of their initial planning process. Brands should work with a partner to find out the conversation index, top competitors, top discussed phrases, and customer experiences with products and services.
2- Conduct Annual Audits:

Social media teams should work with management and marketing managers to understand how and why the social web responded to activities in the market. Benchmark top advocates and detractors, and determine which topics or products are most talked about. Most importantly, benchmark your own social efforts, measuring the change and analyze what caused them, you’ll need this data as your budgets are questioned. Finally, use this knowledge to set quantitative and qualitative goals of where you want to be next year.
3- Conduct Ongoing Monitoring:

This really isn’t an audit but is key as listening doesn’t just happen in spurts. Brands should be constantly monitoring their brand using alerts and reports. Ongoing monitoring is helpful in responding to the real time web (crises can breakout even on a weekend) but may miss out in seeing the bigger picture and macro changes.
Key TakeawaysI was involved (I come from practice within corporate) in the brand monitoring when I was running the social program at Hitachi Data Systems, I leaned on Converseon and Factiva, now owned by Dow Jones as well as setup Google Alerts and tracked Technorati links. Here’s a few things you’ll need to take into account:
Don’t conduct your audit in a vacuum. Identify the keywords and phrases to measure by involving a variety of stakeholders. Be sure to distribute the findings to stakeholders as well as conduct a findings meeting to discuss next steps
Find a brand monitoring vendor as a long term partner. Find a listening platform that understands your business, and gets the social web –beyond just mainstream media. Forrester has conducted research Wave on this topic to find the right listening platform vendors to meet your needs.
Appropriately Staff and Fund. Don’t expect this partner to understand the nuances of your markets’ discussion, assign a few part time resources internally to champion this audit internally –and don’t forget to budget. I’ve seen many annual pricing proposals at the 100k range –varying on services and number of keywords used.
Love to hear your tips, best practices, and pitfalls to avoid in the comments when it comes to developing an active listening strategy.
Conducting the Audit.
Key to the audit is identifying two or three competitors. One competitor should be similar in size and scope to the entity audited and the second should be larger. If a business chooses to include a third competitor, it is advisable to use one smaller in size and scope.
Identify the metrics for each audit category. For instance, a Twitter audit should include the number of followers and the number following the Twitter account. The number of Tweets is certainly important as it indicates how active the account is with updating followers. Whether the Twitter account is listed may or may not also be important to the business.
Identify the basics of each audit category. For instance, YouTube has many elements beyond simply posting a video that help deliver brand messaging, and each should be identified and explained so the recipient of the audit understands the impact of ignoring or embracing those options. Depending on the type of entity audited, LinkedIn should include a comparison of the company profile, the groups belonged to, and the naming conventions of the groups.
The information is incredibly easy to collect and collate. The most difficult decision is how to analyze the data and what factors are important to an individual entity.